Curves in the Road to Redeeming Miles

DAVID BORAK, an environmental policy analyst from Washington, has 300,000 frequent-flier miles with United, but for five months now, he hasn’t been able to use them for a family vacation in Rome next summer. While his dates are flexible, he said there were no seats available for the so-called Saver price of 50,000 miles.

Exasperated, he posted a message on FlyerTalk.com, a Web site where travelers share tips about getting the most out of loyalty programs, venting his frustration: “I could not even find one lousy award ticket (economy or business) for IAD-FCO for the next 12 months!” he wrote, using the airport codes for Dulles and Leonardo da Vinci Airports. “What gives?”

There are similar gripes about nearly every frequent-flier program. “I’ve been looking for standard coach seats IAH-HNL for the 1st week of August since last October,” a Continental OnePass member recently posted, referring to the airports in Houston and Honolulu. “No luck whatsoever.” A Southwest Rapid Rewards member who couldn’t find any award seats from Virginia to Denver, asked in a post last December, “Is this a trend?”

In a word, yes. Travelers have long complained about the difficulty of booking frequent-flier tickets, but now it’s becoming even harder. One issue is the airline load factor. Seats filled with paying passengers averaged 80 percent in the year ended October, up one percentage point from 2006. The industry considers that level a near-capacity load factor, and as a result, airlines have less incentive to offer award seats on planes they can easily fill with paying passengers.

Meanwhile, airlines are issuing miles on credit card payments for everything from groceries to rent, resulting in a glut of miles competing for a shrinking number of seats. On top of this, airlines have been tweaking their frequent-flier programs, making miles both harder to redeem and cheaper in value.

On Feb. 1, Continental upped the number of miles required for some of its so-called EasyPass awards, raising the price of a first-class domestic flight to 100,000 miles from 90,000, and the price of the so-called SaverPass award to 50,000 from 45,000. And Delta did away with a key selling point of its premium SkyChoice awards (which cost twice as much, 50,000 miles for a domestic ticket, as its basic SkySaver award): a guarantee of an award ticket as long as there was an open seat on the plane. “SkyChoice Award Ticket Reservations will continue to be available on most Delta flights,” according to a statement on delta.com, “but seats will be limited and possibly unavailable on some flights.”

Tim Winship, editor at large for SmarterTravel.com and the publisher of FrequentFlier.com, said, “The currency has been devalued.” He added, “It’s been this incremental process whereby they raise a little here, they raise a little there, they cut back on the availability of restricted awards, which has the effect of forcing people to redeem twice as many miles.”

And if award-ticket inflation weren’t enough, many airlines have also imposed shorter expiration dates. American, United and US Airways have 18-month expiration policies, and Delta has cut the life span of its SkyMiles from three years to two. The latest to cut back is Alaska Airlines. Effective April 1, it will wipe the miles from any account that has been idle for two years.

The airlines say they give away plenty of award seats each year. In fact, they say, more frequent-flier tickets are being awarded than ever: American Airlines issued 4.8 million AAdvantage award tickets and upgrades last year, up about 85 percent from 2006. And Continental issued 1.84 million OnePass award tickets and upgrades last year, up 7.6 percent from the previous year. Those numbers, however, don’t reflect how many customers tried to use their miles and failed.

Photo

Credit
Wesley Bedrosian

Indeed, many frequent fliers have given up trying to score the cheapest award tickets, which typically start at 25,000 miles, saying that it’s an exercise in futility. “I never expect to get the saver awards,” said Chris Schmandt, a research scientist from Winchester, Mass., who is an elite flier on United. “I basically go into it thinking I’m going to spend the premium award.”

And judging by the recent mileage cutbacks, it’s probably not going to be any easier. To get the most out of their miles, customers are going to new extremes. To redeem tickets for her parents from Newark to Honolulu for a winter vacation, Mary Tuohy, an elite Continental flier from Manalapan, N.J., searched every day for six months. “This was my daily job from June until November — checking on a daily basis, sometimes twice a day,” she said. Eventually the effort paid off, though it still required some creative booking. The airline suddenly released some award seats on the dates she wanted, and Ms. Tuohy was able to use 55,000 miles for one ticket (coach on the outbound flight, first class on the return). For the second ticket, she paid $1,150 for coach seats and used 17,500 miles to upgrade the return flight to first class.

Beyond obsessively checking for new award seats, there’s unfortunately little that mileage members can do to improve their chances. One strategy is to search for flights with less demand, like off-season destinations. Award tickets to Europe, for example, are still available if you travel before the summer high season. A recent search on aa.com found plenty of American Airlines tickets between New York and London through May 15 that only cost 40,000 miles — its cheapest MilesSaver award category.

An error has occurred. Please try again later.

You are already subscribed to this email.

Award tickets may also be available on new routes that have yet to gain traction. Delta, which recently added nonstop service from Kennedy Airport to St. Lucia, still had a smattering of its lowest SkySaver awards (30,000 for the Caribbean) available in a recent search for February and March, despite its being St. Lucia’s high season.

Be sure to check for award seats on partner airlines. Some airlines are starting to make it easier to do so online. Delta’s Web site now lets you search for award tickets for SkyTeam alliance partners, including Continental and Northwest. And don’t hesitate to pick up the phone and call the airline directly, recommended Randy Petersen, editor of InsideFlyer magazine. While most airlines charge fees for making award reservations by phone, a booking agent can often pull together an award itinerary using partner airlines. All the major carriers are part of an airline alliance like oneworld, SkyTeam or Star Alliance, which allow travelers to redeem miles for flights on other members.

Check out the online forums of FlyerTalk.com, FrequentFlier.com and FlightBliss.com, where mile-obsessed travelers share their strategies for earning and redeeming miles. Some airlines also point out routes on their Web sites that have good award availability at a given time of year. American Airlines recently listed Phoenix; Santa Ana, Calif.; and Colorado Springs among its February AAdvantage Hotspots. US Airways offers its own “best bets for award travel” on usairways.com.

If you can’t find a coach ticket, consider upgrading on longer flights. “You may be better served from a value standpoint,” said Mr. Winship of FrequentFlier.com. While a coach ticket from Dallas to Los Angeles costs 25,000 miles, it may be worth only $198 if you bought it yourself. Upgrading to first class, on the other hand, sets you back 30,000 miles, but the ticket would normally cost $1,158 based on recent prices. For the extra legroom, tastier meals and state of mind, it may be well worth your while.

Give April in Dublin a Try

Frequent-flier miles are becoming harder to redeem for airline tickets. Here are some tips:

Search for off-season destinations, like Europe in the spring. The fact that airlines are offering deals like $398 to Dublin suggests that there are likely to be seats up for grabs for travelers looking to use miles.

Look for new routes, like Delta’s flight from Kennedy Airport to St. Lucia, which started on Nov. 15, or American’s from Kennedy Airport to St. Kitts, as more seats are often available on recently started routes.

Cast a wider net by seeking out partner airlines. No award seats to Australia on American? Try its partner Cathay Pacific, which flies there via Hong Kong.

Keep checking. Airlines typically load seat inventory 330 days in advance but can release award seats at any time based on cancellations, changes or demand levels.

Correction: February 24, 2008

The Practical Traveler column on Feb. 10 about redeeming frequent flier miles misstated the cut-off date for an American Airlines award for tickets between New York and London that cost only 40,000 miles; the offer is through May 15, not June 15.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page TR6 of the New York edition with the headline: Curves in the Road to Miles Redemption. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe